TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas lawmakers approved a policy early Friday morning requiring abortion providers and pharmacists to inform patients of an unproven treatment to “reverse” mifepristone, the first drug used in a medication abortion.
It was one of several measures on abortion the Republican-controlled Legislature sent to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk less than a year after Kansas voters overwhelmingly supported preserving the state constitutional protection for abortion.
The abortion pill reversal bill also included a policy to redefine abortion in statute to exclude contraceptives, ectopic pregnancy care and miscarriage care. The Legislature also allocated $2 million in funding for an alternatives to abortion program that would support anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers that often offer the treatment.
The Senate passed the abortion reversal measure 26-11, and the House voted 80-38 to send it to Kelly.
Kelly vetoed the abortion pill reversal policy when it was sent to her desk in 2019.
The policies are among a handful of bills pushed by anti-abortion groups in Kansas in an effort to continue to reduce abortions even as the state constitution strictly prohibits laws that impede a woman’s access to the procedure. On Tuesday, the House voted to Kelly a bill penalizing physicians who do not provide care to infants “born alive” during an abortion.
Proponents argue the policies ensure Kansas is doing what it can to help women, ensuring they have resources if they choose to maintain a pregnancy and providing them with options if they regret taking the first step toward a medication abortion.
“Any time you have a chance to save a human being’s life, I say go for it,” said state Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican.
But the abortion pill reversal procedure, which involves administering a high dose of the pregnancy maintaining hormone progesterone, is unproven. The one large study that has been done on the procedure, a case review conducted by an anti-abortion doctor in California, George Delgado, has been criticized for failing to meet traditional standards for medical research.
A University of California, Davis, attempt at conducting a more formal study on the treatment was stopped early after three women, two who were in the control group and did not take progesterone and one who did, went to the hospital because of hemorrhaging.
Democrats voting against the measure pointed to the 2022 vote by Kansas voters rejecting a constitutional amendment that would have allowed state lawmakers to ban abortion.
“Voters upheld the status quo and this is not the status quo,” said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat.
Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, which often provide some financial assistance to new and expecting mothers as well as pregnancy tests and sometimes ultrasounds, are often criticized by abortion rights advocates for manipulating women who are seeking abortions, misleading them into believing they could receive an abortion there and shaming them out of the procedure they desire.
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(The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed reporting.)
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